Robert Woolsey was terminally ill and suffering from kidney disease during filming, as he had during the previous film, "On Again-Off Again (1937)." He struggled to complete "High Flyers" and died less than a year after its release.
The censors would not allow Wheeler and Woolsey to become high from the cocaine in the movie. Instead, the word "cocaine" was changed to a euphemism to meet Production Code requirements.
Wheeler's impersonation of Charlie Chaplin in this movie was also a big part of his stage act before he teamed up with Woolsey. Chaplin greatly appreciated and admired Wheeler's take-off on him.
This would be the final film for the popular team of Wheeler and Woolsey. Robert Woolsey (the one in the glasses) was stricken with kidney disease and would succumb the following year. They made 21 feature films together that were released from 1929 to 1937.
During the singing of "I Always Get My Man", Lupe Velez impersonates Dolores Del Río, Simone Simon and, most bizarrely, Marlene Dietrich singing a Shirley Temple song.